News Announced: Mary Poppins Attraction in UK Pavilion

GlacierGlacier

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
Thelazer said:
kap91 - Proving once again there is more talent here on WDWMagic, than there is left in WDI.
Nice work!
Click to expand...
I've had conversations with quite a few individuals at WDI. The issue is not the talent of employees, but the daring of management.

Many of the individuals in the top of the industry right now got their start with the Epcot and Tokyo projects. A lot of companies like Birket, Alcorn McBride, and more all were founded shortly after Epcot. These people have a ton of experience and worked on what many people on these forums claim as their holy grounds.

For example: a big lighting designer for Pandora was also one who worked on Spaceship Earth - especially the sunset lighting. That's Joe Falzetta, for those interested.

The project manager of Shanghai Disneyland got his start with a project as part of EPCOT, working on most parks since. That's John Lindsay.

That's not counting the amount of outside design and engineering work used by WDI and Universal Creative - headed by that same group of people from the 80s with Epcot.

The issue isn't the creatives, or even project managers. It's buisness execs who view theme parks like we view six flags.
 
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kap91

kap91

Well-Known Member
Thelazer said:
kap91 - Proving once again there is more talent here on WDWMagic, than there is left in WDI.
Nice work!
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’d like to take that credit, but as @GlacierGlacier points out - the issue is largely more what the people in charge have as priorities and what they’re willing to spend money on. Everyone once in a while Imagineering turns out a turd of bad design intent, but almost always it’s really a lack of resources and will on behalf of management
 
GlacierGlacier

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
bcoachable said:
I think there is talent still around, they are just waiting for bean counters to realize they better make Wdw great again... (or they have moved up I-4 to offer their talents there)
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A lot of designers and engineers both entering the field and otherwise are finding third-party firms are beginning to look more attractive. Everyone wants to work at WDI at some point, but WDI is only a lifetime job for so many people. A lot of the individuals I've talked to put in their 20, 30 years at Disney and have moved on to these firms. Concept artists, writers, project managers, all were with Disney for a while before taking their talents outside.
 
bcoachable

bcoachable

Well-Known Member
GlacierGlacier said:
A lot of designers and engineers both entering the field and otherwise are finding third-party firms are beginning to look more attractive. Everyone wants to work at WDI at some point, but WDI is only a lifetime job for so many people. A lot of the individuals I've talked to put in their 20, 30 years at Disney and have moved on to these firms. Concept artists, writers, project managers, all were with Disney for a while before taking their talents outside.
Click to expand...
I am hearing/seeing the same...
a bit sad, as it seems it is somewhat of a shift caused by outsourcing, but I get it..
I don't think we will see too many "Tony Baxter's" being developed in WDI's culture in the future,
but we will see nameless (to park goers) firms from the outside doing much of the creative heavy lifting...
maybe (Marni???) having to hire outside groups to contribute on projects is one of the contributing factors as to why project cost seem to be so inflated esp. recently??
(I am begging someone on the inside tell me we are wrong about this!!)
Back on topic...
Will they or won't they light the candle on this project?!!
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
GlacierGlacier said:
I've had conversations with quite a few individuals at WDI. The issue is not the talent of employees, but the daring of management.

Many of the individuals in the top of the industry right now got their start with the Epcot and Tokyo projects. A lot of companies like Birket, Alcorn McBride, and more all were founded shortly after Epcot. These people have a ton of experience and worked on what many people on these forums claim as their holy grounds.

For example: a big lighting designer for Pandora was also one who worked on Spaceship Earth - especially the sunset lighting. That's Joe Falzetta, for those interested.

The project manager of Shanghai Disneyland got his start with a project as part of EPCOT, working on most parks since. That's John Lindsay.

That's not counting the amount of outside design and engineering work used by WDI and Universal Creative - headed by that same group of people from the 80s with Epcot.

The issue isn't the creatives, or even project managers. It's buisness execs who view theme parks like we view six flags.
Click to expand...
And Pixar Pier was designed by...interns on minimum wage? :p

I never knew that for certain but I always sort of assumed WDI wants to do great things but it's upper managements poor direction to blame. I guess I assumed correctly!
 
GlacierGlacier

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
bcoachable said:
I am hearing/seeing the same...
a bit sad, as it seems it is somewhat of a shift caused by outsourcing, but I get it..
I don't think we will see too many "Tony Baxter's" being developed in WDI's culture in the future,
but we will see nameless (to park goers) firms from the outside doing much of the creative heavy lifting...
maybe (Marni???) having to hire outside groups to contribute on projects is one of the contributing factors as to why project cost seem to be so inflated esp. recently??
(I am begging someone on the inside tell me we are wrong about this!!)
Back on topic...
Will they or won't they light the candle on this project?!!
Click to expand...
These outside firms are not new companies.

Back in the late 70s, early 80s, Disney was building both Epcot and TKDL. As such, they hired a ton of people to be imagineers. After the end of both projects initial construction, many were laid off since there wasn't enough work anymore. All these individuals founded these companies, and Disney, Universal, WB, Cedar Hills, museums, Sea World, etc have been contracting them ever since.

The majority of companies in this industry nowadays are celebrating their 30-40th birthdays. All Ex-cots.

Disney and Universal hire from the same group, too. In fact, Uni hires a ton more outside help than Disney does but still maintains smaller budgets and faster build times.

External firms are not the source of these crazy build costs. In fact, the use of external firms can even reduce cost in some cases - economies of Scale, specialization, Game Theory, and opportunity cost work in the favor of these firms.
 
GlacierGlacier

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
trainplane3 said:
And Pixar Pier was designed by...interns on minimum wage? :p

I never knew that for certain but I always sort of assumed WDI wants to do great things but it's upper managements poor direction to blame. I guess I assumed correctly!
Click to expand...
Disney's engineering interns are paid $25 an hour.

And this would be an instance of management (Lasseter) saying "I want this. Make it. It must go here."
 
Horizons '83

Horizons '83

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
GlacierGlacier said:
I've had conversations with quite a few individuals at WDI. The issue is not the talent of employees, but the daring of management.

Many of the individuals in the top of the industry right now got their start with the Epcot and Tokyo projects. A lot of companies like Birket, Alcorn McBride, and more all were founded shortly after Epcot. These people have a ton of experience and worked on what many people on these forums claim as their holy grounds.

For example: a big lighting designer for Pandora was also one who worked on Spaceship Earth - especially the sunset lighting. That's Joe Falzetta, for those interested.

The project manager of Shanghai Disneyland got his start with a project as part of EPCOT, working on most parks since. That's John Lindsay.

That's not counting the amount of outside design and engineering work used by WDI and Universal Creative - headed by that same group of people from the 80s with Epcot.

The issue isn't the creatives, or even project managers. It's buisness execs who view theme parks like we view six flags.
Click to expand...
Interesting history, thanks for that.

I tend to get confused as to why the higher exec's would think this way considering many (and I could be way off base here) are internal hires, i.e. have been with WD for years/decades. You would think they would know how to make the right decisions but I am guessing that the "shareholders" and Wall Street take precedence in their decisions.
 

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